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Excerpt: Chapter 1. On a brilliant day in May, in the year 1868, a gentle man was reclining at his ease on the great circular divan which at that period occupied the centre of the Salon Carre, in the Museum of the Louvre. This commodious ottoman has since been removed, to the extreme regret of all weak-kneed lovers of the fine arts, but the gentleman in question had taken serene possession of its softest spot, and, with his head thrown back and his legs outstretched, was staring at Murillo?s beautiful moon-borne Madonna in profound enjoyment of his posture. He had removed his hat, and flung down beside him a little red guide-book and an opera-glass....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. An old lady, in a high drawing-room, had had her chair moved close to the fire, where she sat knitting and warming her knees. She was dressed in deep mourning; her face had a faded nobleness, tempered, however, by the somewhat illiberal compression assumed by her lips in obedience to something that was passing in her mind. She was far from the lamp, but though her eyes were fixed upon her active needles she was not looking at them. What she really saw was quite another train of affairs....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Night is generally my time for walking. In the summer I often leave home early in the morning, and roam about fields and lanes all day, or even escape for days or weeks together; but, saving in the country, I seldom go out until after dark, though, Heaven be thanked, I love its light and feel the cheerfulness it sheds upon the earth, as much as any creature living....

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Excerpt: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

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Excerpt: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. The weather door of the smoking-room had been left open to the North Atlantic fog, as the big liner rolled and lifted, whistling to warn the fishing- fleet....

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Excerpt: The Man Who Hunts and Doesn?t Like It. It seems to be odd, at first sight, that there should be any such men as these; but their name and number is legion. If we were to deduct from the hunting- crowd farmers, and others who hunt because hunting is brought to their door, of the remainder we should find that the ?men who don?t like it? have the preponderance. It is pretty much the same, I think, with all amusements. How many men go to balls, to races, to the theatre, how many women to concerts and races, simply because it is the thing to do? They have perhaps, a vague idea that they may ultimately find some joy in the pastime; but, though they do the thing constantly, they never like it. Of all such men, the hunting men are perhaps the most to be pitied....

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Contents THE MAN WHO HUNTS AND DOESN?T LIKE IT ................................................................... 4 THE MAN WHO HUNTS AND DOES LIKE IT .......................................................................... 9 THE LADY WHO RIDES TO HOUNDS ..................................................................................... 15 THE HUNTING FARMER ............................................................................................................ 20 THE MAN WHO HUNTS AND NEVER JUMPS ....................................................................... 26 THE HUNTING PARSON.............................................................................................................. 31 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS ........................................................................................................ 37 HOW TO RIDE TO HOUNDS....................................................................................................... 43...

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Excerpt: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

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Excerpt: Night and Day by Virginia Woolf.

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Excerpt: About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet?s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it....

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Excerpt: Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas by Herman Melville.

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Who will be the new bishop? In the latter days of July in the year 185-, a most important question was for ten days hourly asked in the cathedral city of Barchester, and answered every hour in various ways--Who was to be the new Bishop? The death of old Dr. Grantly, who had for many years filled the chair with meek authority, took place exactly as the ministry of Lord--was going to give place to that Lord--....

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Excerpt: The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham.

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Excerpt: It is nearly eight years since this book was first published. I present it, unaltered, in the Cheap Edition; and such of my opinions as it expresses, are quite unaltered too. My readers have opportunities of judging for themselves whether the influences and tendencies which I distrust in America, have any existence not in my imagination. They can examine for themselves whether there has been anything in the public career of that country during these past eight years, or whether there is anything in its present position, at home or abroad, which suggests that those influences and tendencies really do exist....

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Excerpt: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.

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Excerpt: Subject Of Contention. One midnight of a winter month the sleepers in Riversley Grange were awakened by a ringing of the outer bell and blows upon the great hall-doors. Squire Beltham was master there: the other members of the household were, his daughter Dorothy Beltham; a married daughter Mrs. Richmond; Benjamin Sewis, an old half-caste butler; various domestic servants; and a little boy, christened Harry Lepel Richmond....

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Excerpt: Pictures from Italy by Charles Dickens.

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Excerpt: Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells.

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Contents 1. FILMER ....................................................................................................................................... 4 2. THE MAGIC SHOP................................................................................................................... 21 3. THE VALLEY OF SPIDERS..................................................................................................... 31 4. THE TRUTH ABOUT PYECRAFT ......................................................................................... 41 5. MR. SKELMERSDALE IN FAIRYLAND .............................................................................. 51 6. THE STORY OF THE INEXPERIENCED GHOST .............................................................. 64 7. JIMMY GOGGLES THE GOD ................................................................................................ 76 8. THE NEW ACCELERATOR .................................................................................................... 88 9. MR. LEDBETTER?S VACATION.......................................................................................... 101 10. THE STOL...

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The story starts with a comet that touches the Earth in its flight and collects a few small chunks of it. Some forty people of various nations and ages are condemned to a two-year-long journey on the comet. They form a mini-society and cope with the hostile environment of the comet (mostly the cold). The size of the 'comet' is about 2300 kilometers in diameter - far larger than any comet or asteroid that actually exists....

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Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

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Excerpt: COUNTESS. In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband. BERTRAM: And I in going, madam, weep o?er my father?s death anew: but I must attend his majesty?s command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection....